


Occupied Mind

by SquirrelKiln



Category: Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall
Genre: Anyways I just had this small idea and wanted to write it, Birthday Party, Does it count as original characters if they're just random people/KND agents/dexbots?, Gen, I might edit it and add more on but probably not !, Short Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:35:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28907934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquirrelKiln/pseuds/SquirrelKiln
Summary: In which Ben's a little too busy to remember something important.(Spoiler: It's his own birthday.)
Relationships: Ben Tennyson & Gwen Tennyson, Dexter (Dexter's Lab) & Ben Tennyson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	Occupied Mind

"Come on, Christine. I told you that you'd hurt your ankle if you jumped like that," Ben scolded gently. The hero he was helping to train blushed and nodded to show she understood. "I know it's been a while since I've shown you but you need to keep working at it. With how much we have to dodge, jumping and falling safely are vital." 

"I'll try again," Christine agreed and walked back to face the training blocks. The gymnasium they were in now used to be for professionals but had been repurposed for the war. At first, a shelter to protect groups of people from fusion monsters in their neighborhood. Once time began to pass, heroes got a hold of things and so the gym could be cleared out of civilians so they could return to their homes or more functional shelters. Right now, it was being used to train new recruits. Impromptu KND members, heroes without specific association, some kid villains (Ben included them in the 'heroes' category despite their whining), and so on. 

Ben looked around the open gym and watched as recruits leaped over tall foam blocks, landed from those heights in a safe roll, and plenty more. Despite the state of things and the reason all these children/still-technically- children had to be training, Ben found himself smiling. He was proud of their progress. And every new hero meant one more rebellion against Lord Fuse and all his goons. 

His attention quickly jolted to the side when he heard a yelp of surprise. Ben lurched forward and caught a falling KND operative. He could've caught himself but instead he let his inertia carry him, since Ben knew there'd be no injury to himself. Once Ben hit the ground instead of letting that kid break his ankle, he released his hold. 

"You okay?" Ben asked, sitting back on the soft padded floor. The kid seemed embarrassed. 

"Yeah, yeah. Just misjudged that jump. Sorry." He stood and offered a hand to help Ben up, which he accepted. (Ben stood up by himself but appreciated the gesture anyway.) 

"You'll get an eye for it soon. Try that again,  _ without _ that error." Ben chuckled. The kid saluted stiffly before running back to try again. Ben was about to look around to find someone else who needed more guidance when his communicator went off. Ben trotted off to the side and covered his ear with one hand and raised the Omnitrix up higher. 

"This is Ben Tennyson," he answered. 

"Ben! You need to get to DexLabs! It's urgent!" Dexter's voice came through. The tone wasn't quite frantic but it was, as he said, urgent. Ben's expression set. 

"I'm on my way!" And with that, Ben burst out of the double doors. The padding of his feet turned into the thump of large paws as Wildmutt tore through the streets. He leaped over a swarm of fusion monsters to get to DexLabs all the faster. He must've scared a couple onlookers on the way there but he wasn't concerned with that. All he was thinking about was that Dexter was in danger. Manners be damned. 

As he took a sharp turn, he detransformed and kept running as just Ben. He burst through the doors and had his Omnitrix ready to transform again. However, he forced himself to skid to a screeching halt when he saw there wasn't any danger. In fact, there seemed to be some casual gathering of Ben's loved ones and friends. They all smiled and waved, some piping up greetings and other comments.

"What?" Ben asked, his heart still pounding in anticipation for a fight. Dexter walked over to him with a rather calm expression. 

"There you are.” Dexter tapped something on his watch. A Dexbot--Q-43, if Ben could recognize it properly--whirred over and affixed a striped, cone party hat onto Ben’s head before going off somewhere into the lab to likely continue its intended work.

“... Is… Shit, did I miss someone’s birthday?” Ben’s eyes widened. A short laugh behind him revealed Gwen coming up behind him. She had a cone hat that said something in bright yellow cursive, but Ben didn’t bother with reading it. 

“Uh, yeah. Mine,” she joked. Ben had an almost horrified expression.

“Oh, man. I’m so sorry Gwen. I’ve been so busy with the recruits it slipped my mind. Happy birthday.”

Gwen’s amused expression only grew in intensity as she pressed her lips together to try and avoid bursting out in laughter at her cousin’s obliviousness to the situation at hand. “... Ben, that’s not the only birthday you forgot.”

Ben’s eyes searched the crowd of people as he tried to decipher her comment. It definitely wasn’t Dexter’s birthday, since that was in March and Ben definitely gave him a Plumber’s badge and some hypothetical blueprints to tear through this past year. “Uh… Man… Dark...s?” He tried.

“Maybe this will help.” Gwen reached up and pulled the cone hat off of Ben’s head, tugging hair in his face with the action. When he fixed his hair and she showed off the hat, it took him a moment to realize what the cursive said.

‘ _ Happy 18th Birthday. _ ’

You could probably hear the mental cogs whirring in Ben’s head if you were close enough. They stopped with a sudden halt when it sunk in. “... Oh. Oh, man.” The hero ran a hand over his hair. “I totally forgot.” 

“No kidding.” Gwen took Ben’s hand and set the hat back in it. “You’re not just late for your own party, but you forgot about it entirely.” 

Ben smiled weakly and Gwen gave an understanding smile in return. The war had been hard on everyone and ‘small things’ tended to slip people’s minds. Dexter cleared his throat to get attention. 

“We all tend to prioritize different things nowadays. There is no shame in it,” he spoke with his usual leader-of-a-warfront voice. Ben chuckled and (like the denier that Dexter was as serious as he claimed he was) ruffled his hair just to see the younger teen’s annoyed face at the affection. 

“I guess so.” Ben pulled the silly party hat back on and chuckled as Dexter huffed and fixed his hair. 

“If you’re done with  _ that, _ Max Tennyson has something waiting for you in the other room.” Dexter smiled despite himself. It was supposed to be a happy day after all and Ben’s current grin was infectious. 

“Can’t keep gramps waiting!” Ben gave a large wave to people before he and Gwen followed Dexter into another room. Even in a war, they were fortunate to have days like these. Days where things weren’t so awful and if you closed your eyes, it almost seemed like everything was going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone needs context: Ben and Gwen canonically have the same birthday, though the date isn't specified. If you know me I always make Ben a leader (*cough* dad *cough*) so yes. I love him Too Much in every universe. 
> 
> With OpenFusion up and about, I've gotten back into FF (too much, in fact!) so I'm having fun making content for it again! I have more lengthy and serious fics in the works. Because I can't stay in one fandom for longer than ten minutes.


End file.
